Rowing has long been one of the best forms of exercise. This is because rowing has been taught to condition all major and most minor muscle groups of the body. In addition, more calories are burned during rowing than many other exercises, such as running. Rowing has also been taught to provide excellent cardiovascular fitness.
There have been disclosed stationary devices which were supposedly designed to simulate rowing. In addition, various forms of vehicles designed for propulsion by an occupant thereof by a reciprocating or oscillating movement of a drive actuator have been disclosed. However, there has been minor development of a land vehicle having a drive system which can be operated in the manner of simulating conventional oars or those utilized in competitive sculling.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,126,329 discloses a wheeled land vehicle having oar-type propulsion. That unit is propelled by actuation of the front wheels thereof by the simulated oars, and steering of the vehicle is disclosed very sparingly. The only specific disclosure relative to the steering thereof is directed to somehow steering the rear wheel thereof or adjusting the rowing movement, i.e., a torque, to each wheel.
In contrast thereto, my invention allows for a rowing or sculling motion to drive the rear wheel thereof, which reduces the power requirement, can utilize conventional bicycling equipment, and has a simple steering mechanism designed to allow the feet to steer the front wheels.